Ms. Marvel
Carol was the only daughter of a middle-class family in a suburb of Boston. She was a bright, independent child who constantly competed with her brothers in sports, academics and just about everything else. When her oldest brother got accepted into his college of choice, she decided then and there that she would get in to an even /better/ school when she graduated. Her father, however, was a "traditional" (read: sexist) sort who refused to pay for any education for his daughter beyond high school, wanting to save the money for his other sons' tuitions instead. He encouraged Carol to find a nice man, settle down and get married. Not one to settle for simply getting her M-R-S degree, Carol opted instead to enlist in the US Air Force, defying her father on two counts; the Air Force would pay for her education, as well as giving her the opportunity to work in a male-dominated field. She and her family didn't speak much after she made that decision, aside from occasional phone call to her mother or brothers. Carol flourished in the service. She took to her training and all aspects of military life like a duck to water, quickly advancing through the ranks to Major. Her excellent service record lead to her being recruited into the intelligence field, and eventually the CIA, where she continued to perform extremely well- even in situations where she and her partner faced off against super-powered threats. After the CIA, she went on to work for NASA as a security director for Cape Canaveral, where a disabled Kree sentry was being studied by the US Army. Unbeknownst to anyone, a Kree soldier had infiltrated the Cape to assess the threat humanity posed to the alien species. Captain Mar-Vell assumed the identity of Dr. Walter Lawson, an expert in robotics and missile guidance systems. Carol was suspicious of Dr. Lawrence, and felt he was a security risk, but her commander, General Bridges ignored her warnings and brought him in to the Sentry study program. When Mar-Vell's commander and enemy, Yon-Rogg, learned of the Sentry's presence at Cape Canaveral, he ordered it to attack, hoping to kill Mar-Vell in order to pursue a love interest of the Kree soldier. Carol was caught in the crossfire of the battle, and was rescued by Mar-Vell, who would later be dubbed "Captain Marvel" after a member of the media misheard his name. After Mar-Vell revealed Yon-Rogg's treachery to the Kree Surpeme intelligence, his former commanding officer was exiled. In retaliation, Yon-Rogg kidnapped Carol as bait to lure Mar-Vell into a trap using a forbidden Kree weapon known as the Psyche-Magnitron. After Mar-Vell defeated Yon-Rogg, the Psyche-Magnitron exploded, bathing both Mar-Vell and Carol in radiant energies. The device, which, in a sense, could transform wishes to realities, transformed Carol (who wished to stand by Captain Marvel as an equal, rather than a victim in need of rescue) on a cell-by cell basis, recreating her as a perfect hybrid of human and Kree. Though Carol did not know at the time, this was when Ms. Marvel was born. The knowledge and skills of Mar-Vell's that the Magnitron transferred to her in addition to the superhuman abilities caused a temporary fracture of her psyche, causing her to black out when her powers manifested. After recovering from her injuries, Carol returned to her job at Cape Canaveral, but it only for a short time. Due to being unable to capture Captain Marvel, she lost her position with NASA, but not before the Psyche-Magnitron summoned her back to it to retrieve a specially made uniform (based on Mar-Vell's) that would work to complete her transformation. She decided to pursue one of her other loves; writing. After writing a tell-all book about the space industry, Carol earned a reputation as a journalist. For a year, she made a name for herself as a freelance writer. It was this that prompted a job offer from Jonah Jamison to take over the floundering WOMAN magazine as editor. Her staunch feminist views proved to be a breath of fresh air for the magazine, which had formerly offered makeup tips and recipies. She opted instead to cover women's issues in the news and politics (it is worth noting that this did not sit well with old JJJ, with whom she often butted heads over the magazine's content). One particular story that interested her was the mystery of the newly arrived superheroine known as Ms. Marvel, a total amnesiac who chose her name based on her costume's resemblance to that of Captain Marvel and relied on her Kree instincts in battle. Carol had no idea that the masked warrior woman was herself, as her blackouts were instigated by her "seventh sense" ability. Eventually, she sought the help of a hypno-therapist to recall her wherabouts during her blackouts. While at first he thought the memories Carol had of being Ms. Marvel were paranoid delusions, he was proven wrong after seeing the transformation himself- the Psyche-Magnitron had given her the ability to instantly manifest her uniform in place of her civilian clothing. With his help, Carol's mind finally repaired itself as she accepted the warrior's persona as part of herself, not an alien personality. She embraced this part of her life and continued to fight as Ms. Marvel, eventually donning a new costume and teaming up with a handful of fellow super-heroes on several occasions and making a name for herself among the capes-and-masks set. Carol's life-long lucky streak had to end sometime, though. In a battle with the mutant known as Rogue, Carol's life force was drained almost entirely from her, leaving her in a coma. Slowly, she recovered from this state, but her memories refused to resurface. For a time, she disappeared entirely. While her powers were drained, her physiology remained a perfect hybrid of Human and Kree, which caught the attention of the Brood, who experimented on her, temporarily super-charging her powers to cosmic levels. She called herself Binary, and travelled the stars, exploring her powers and embarking on adventures that most humans could only dream of. During this time of wonder, perhaps because her mind was at ease then, she began to regain her memories, bit by bit. But she was no longer human, and what place could someone like her have on Earth? It had more than enough super-powered champions, and there was nothing that truly tied her to her life on that little blue planet. When the existence of that little blue planet was threatened though, she was there to save it- severing her connection the 'white hole' that powered her current state. Without it, she was a machine without its fuel source, running on the lingering fumes she had left. Unable to go anywhere else, she returned to Earth and began to once again make a life for herself there. She began reporting for the Daily Planet newspaper in New York City, and soon found that her powers were slowly returning to her as she absorbed ambient energy from her surroundings. Experimentation with this lead to regaining some measure of her Binary powers- albeit much scaled down versions, putting her strength just about on par with her old Ms. Marvel powers. But was she still Ms. Marvel? No- this was a new chapter in her life, and so, she took on a new codename; Warbird. Recently, she has returned to the intelligence field, accepting a job from the Department of Homeland Security as a consultant on extra-terrestrial and super-powered threats. It is, sadly, a desk job for the most part, but she is at least putting her experiences in outer space to use. While she is certainly on the way to getting herself and her life back together, she has survived a lot that she is still recovering from. Even with the alien DNA and super-powers, she is all too human. She has her coping mechanisms, and not all of them are particularly healthy. Category:Characters Category:Features Category:Hero Category:Taken